


We're Walking the Wire, Love

by x215zimer



Series: Toeing the Line [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, But light on the fluff, Concussion as a plot device, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Love Confessions, TW: Blood mention, This IS Catradora after all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 15:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17061962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/x215zimer/pseuds/x215zimer
Summary: It's been six months since the Battle of Bright Moon. Catra and Adora have been leading their forces against the other in dozens of skirmishes."It was the same scene as it was a dozen times before. Catra would roll up with tanks on some backwater village. She would roll over a building or two, yell at anyone marching too slow, and wait forherto appear. Then she would go ‘Hey Adora’ to her, and they would fight, with her pleading for Catra to come with her, to leave the Horde, to join the Rebellion and her sparkly new friends in paradise.Catra would laugh, mock her pleas, claw She-Ra a bit, and then one of them would eventually retreat, only to do it again in a week. "





	We're Walking the Wire, Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work of writing in this fandom, and the first piece of creative fiction I have ever written, so please keep that in mind when reading. Title from the song 'Walking the Wire' by Imagine Dragons.

It was the same scene as it was a dozen times before. Catra would roll up with tanks on some backwater village. She would roll over a building or two, yell at anyone marching too slow, and wait for _her_ to appear. Then she would go ‘Hey Adora’ to her, and they would fight, with her pleading for Catra to come with her, to leave the Horde, to join the Rebellion and her sparkly new friends in paradise. 

Catra would laugh, mock her pleas, claw She-Ra a bit, and then one of them would eventually retreat, only to do it again in a week. This time, they were at a village at the base of a mountain somewhere. Catra had diverted She-Ra away from the fighting again and was in her opinion doing a great job of keeping her away from where she could do any real damage.

“It doesn’t have to be this way Catra,” She-Ra said. “You don’t have to be under the Horde’s rules anymore. You could leave them and join the Rebellion. I know there’s still good in you!”

It wasn’t anything Catra had not heard already. “And be what? Your number two in command, second to Sparkles? Or has Crop-Top already bumped me to third?”

“Catra you know I never meant to make you feel second best, that you weren’t my equal.”

Duck. Sidestep. A quick scratch to the cheek to cover circling behind her.

“Tell that to Shadow Weaver, or Hordak, or anyone else who didn’t think I would make it this far. Even you must admit, without your magic sword, I would have pummeled you into the dirt months ago.”

To punctuate her statement, she delivered a swift kick to She-Ra’s abdomen, pushing her off the ledge they had been fighting on.

Schooling her face into a smug smirk, she walked up to the edge of the low cliff. It seemed this fight would be over soon enough. As she leapt off the ledge, she expected She-Ra, furious and melodramatic, waving her sword to make a point about how clean her conscience was or something. Instead she found Adora, struggling to sit up, sword laying where she dropped it.

A quick once-over and she saw the rock Adora’s head must have hit. _Looks like today isn’t your lucky day_ , Catra thought, quickly looking away from the dark spot before having to admit to herself what it was.

“Nasty fall huh. Maybe this time you really will get brain damage. Assuming of course you didn’t the first time.” Her smirk slipped for a moment when she didn’t get a reply as Adora struggled to stay sitting.

_Crap. She might have it this time. No! Enough of that. No more caring about people who leave you behind._

“Looks like it’ll only be a matter of time now. I can’t hear your friends anymore, so maybe they finally got what was coming to them.” This got Adora moving, her eyes focusing a little bit more as she started to stand up. Carefully walking around opposite the sword, Catra circled Adora goading her on.

“They sure could use She-Ra right about now. It really is a shame. You let the Horde down, and now the Rebellion.” _But not before you let me down._ “When will it end?” Circling behind Adora, she caught a good look at the back of Adora’s head. Beneath her pony tail was a small blotch of red that she could smell from where she stood.

Forcing herself still, she waited for Adora to move. _It’s not that much blood. It can’t be. You’re overreacting. It just smells like more than it is because you always had a good sense of smell._

As Adora picked up the sword, Catra grinned. Soon She-Ra would be back, and she could stop seeing Adora and her dumb pretty face. Pretty dumb face. That’s what she meant. She was disappointed when instead of glowing and becoming an 8-foot tall princess, she leaned on the sword and started to fall over. Acting without thinking, Catra stepped forward and grabbed her shoulder, steadying Adora.

The moment caught up with her and Catra began to panic. _Crap! I said no caring about people who_ do not _care about you, who leave you with Shadow Weaver, who leave you and never come back for you!_

 _Well you never were good at following orders_ says the traitorous part of her brain. Silencing it, she almost lets go of Adora when she falls to her knees and starts dry heaving. “Holy crap you _did_ get brain damage. Oh my gods Shadow Weaver is going to-” No. Shadow Weaver can’t touch her, can’t punish her for what happens and for what she does with Adora anymore. Absentmindedly, she moves Adora’s hair back from her mouth. _I could just leave. Let the mighty She-Ra choke on her own barf. A fitting end to such a glowing piece of crap._ But it wasn’t She-Ra trying to hold her lunch in, it was Adora. Adora, who comforted her after Shadow Weaver punished her for being less than perfect. Adora, who ran through the halls with her, knew all the spots she hid when she didn’t want to train, who left her after seeing some strangers get hurt while she had been hurt for years, and she just about lets go of her at that thought.

But it had been months. Months alone every night, running though training exercises, moving into her Force Captain quarters, then Shadow Weaver’s after. Every meal, every joke half said to no one, every pillow and sheet slowly losing her scent. Alone. And now she was there, so close she could smell her. Nothing like She-Ra who smelled like buttercups and gold and gods know what other princess crap. Adora, who reminded her of so many things she couldn’t remember them each, all labelled under Adora.

She was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice Adora had stopped until she had half turned, blearily looking at Catra, and asked, “Why?” 

Startled out of her stupor, she almost let go of Adora and took a step back. Adora swayed for a moment, before leaning less on the sword and more into Catra’s arms. “Why?” she repeated.

Jaw working silently for a second, Catra stopped thinking and went on autopilot. “This is not because I like you.” Catra lifted Adora by her shoulders and started pulling her away from the mess. As she did, Adora struggled with her words for a few seconds. “But… you don’t do things for people you don’t like, and… you shouldn’t like me because I failed to stop Shadow Weaver for years. And… if you don’t _like_ me, then do you l-lo-“

Adora was cut off by Catra dropping her and by Catra loudly yelling “Do not finish that sentence!” 

_Oops,_ thought Catra as she looked at the facedown Adora, who at this point was groaning for landing on her face. _At least she didn’t land in her own barf_ thought Catra, desperately fighting her growing tension as her mind ran a mile a minute. _Of course_ Adora would be too dense to think through anything Catra said, unless she was practically spelling it out. So why does Brain Damaged Adora suddenly start making sense of things?

Trying to deflect, she focused on the first thing Adora said. “Of course I don’t like you! You left me for people who were hurt by random Horde soldiers but did nothing when Shadow Weaver did the same thing to me for years!” As she was talking, Catra paced back and forth next to Adora, who was still lying face down. “The one and _only_ person in the Horde who was worth being friends with up and leaves me for some strangers _might_ make me not like you a little bit!” 

“Bhut nu nyvr sed yu dihnt lhv me.”

Catra froze. _WHAT._ She crouched next to Adora and flipped her over. “WHAT.” Catra said, loudly. Adora was tearing up now, and Catra almost lost her nerve.

“You were right… I didn’t stand up to Shadow Weaver in a way that mattered. I thought if I was good enough, she would be happy. Maybe I wasn’t good enough… or maybe I just wasn’t brave enough to stand up to her, like you… ‘m not even brave enough to tell you that I love you.”

At this, Catra stopped breathing. The urge to cry out in joy was smothered by her wanting to punch Adora for reminding her of what she didn’t do. But not enough to go through with it. She would never, ever, hurt Adora. Even when she was hurt in the temple, at the edge of it all, remembering things she couldn’t forget no matter how much she wanted to. The best she could do even then was to cut the webbing and hope Adora gave up and let go. The thing that didn’t look or smell like her didn’t count. It was so far from Adora she could tune out anything it said. But this wasn’t _her._ It was Adora who had just said she loved her.

Catra could never tell Adora she loved her, no matter how much she wanted to. There was always someone who could make her pay for it. Earlier it had been Shadow Weaver, finally deciding to get rid of what was ‘holding Adora back’. Now Hordak could decide his second in command loving the enemy was a liability. But to know, after years of pining and getting closer to Adora, through the guilty touches that might not have meant the same to Adora, that all along she had felt the same way? Catra’s heart leapt, and then fell. “You never. Stood up. For. **Me.** ” Catra’s mind whirled. _She loved me but did nothing to stop Shadow Weaver. She knew that it was wrong but did nothing about it. I was able to take Shadow Weaver down, but she just stood there! Afraid of what?_ Her? _But then she joins the Rebellion and leaves me! We could have taken her down so much sooner but-._ Catra’s thoughts were again stopped by Adora speaking.

Panting heavily, Adora blinked away tears and forced out her words. “I thought I wasn’t good enough, that I… would fail, and she would hurt you because she… blamed you for everything. The day I got the sword… everything happened so fast. I realized it was more than just Shadow Weaver, and suddenly I might have been able to stop it… I couldn’t stop her yet, but you were there, and we could have left together but… you went back. And I couldn’t save you in the Fright Zone.”

Catra made a sour laugh at that. “Didn’t stop you from saving Glitter when she got caught.” Instead of biting back about Glimmer’s name as she hoped, instead Adora rolled onto her side to face her as she started crying again. 

Adora spoke softly. “I asked you to come so many times… but you went back to them each time. I couldn’t be like the Horde and force you to stay because I wanted you with me.” Catra noticed she was slurring her speech more than earlier but pushed her concern away. 

“I don’t need you to save me. In case you forgot, I’m doing it our way: rising to the top until we’re running the Horde, where no one can touch us or tell us what to do. I never needed you to save me, like some kidnapped princess.” _I just wanted you to stay with me, to watch my back while I watched yours.”_ We were a team. You could have done so much with the sword. We might even have been able to-” No. Speaking treason was dangerous. Hordak had ears everywhere. Ambition like that wasn’t fatal when they were kids, but Hordak’s number two was expected to be just that. Second best. Wiping at tears she only now realized were there, Catra spoke again. “I thought I needed you in the Horde with me to become the best I could be.” She bent down further to look Adora in the eye. Adora’s eyes were red from crying and she seemed to be struggling to stay awake.

“With you as my enemy, I have no choice but to be better than you. One day, I might even become better than Hordak himself. Then, you’ll have to admit it. That I am not in your shadow, not second best to you, and that I can save myself.” Catra paused, ears twitching. Adora’s breath had begun to deepen as she fell asleep. A small smile lit Catra’s face. Softly, confident Adora was asleep, she said “Then maybe I can tell you I Iove you without someone being able to stop me. To stop _us._ ” Tucking a strand of hair behind Adora’s ear, she stood. She wouldn’t be taking Adora prisoner, or reporting this back to Hordak. She might be mad at Adora for leaving her, for betraying her and for breaking their promise, but she didn’t stop loving her. She could hear Glimmer and Bow calling out for Adora in the distance and decided to get going. Turning towards her squad’s rendezvous point, she began to run. Had she looked back, she would have seen Adora’s eyes half open, crying, with a glowing smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this! Feedback is appreciated bc this is the first thing I have written ever. Shout out to all the writers in the fandom. You all inspired me to finally write something other than comments. Kudos, comments, and bookmarks would make my heart soar. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this as much or more than I did writing it!


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